Japanese hotel that hosted last four emperors offering rooms for fraction of their regular price
The Nara Hotel offers royal-class hospitality, but right now you won’t have to pay a king’s ransom to experience it.
As you can probably imagine, when Japan’s royal family travels, it travels in style, and for generations, those stylish travels have gone through the Nara Hotel. In addition to Japan’s currently reigning monarch, Naruhito, the Nara Hotel welcomed the previous three emperors, as well as kings, queens, princes, princesses, presidents and prime ministers of Belgium, Canada, Denmark, India, the Netherlands, Spain, the U.S., and numerous other nations.
So as you can also probably imagine, the Nara Hotel (which is, of course, located in the city of Nara, Japan’s pre-Kyoto capital) isn’t exactly what you’d call budget accommodation. Maintaining the mix of classic Japanese and Western aesthetics that it’s had since opening over a century ago, while adding modern luxury and comfort, means the Nara Hotel commands high prices, and you can usually expect to spend at least 30,000 yen (US$280) a night if you want to experience its royal-level service and amenities.
However, thanks to an amazing deal going on right now you can stay in the Nara Hotel for a fraction of its regular rate.
The Nara Hotel opened in the 42nd year of the Meiji era. That converts to 1909 in the Western calendar, so right now it’s currently celebrating its 110th anniversary, and doing so by lowering its starting room rate on select nights to just 11,000 yen (US$102), and that includes all taxes and service charges.
▼ One of the Nara Hotel’s Standard Double guest rooms.
Granted, that doesn’t quite match the 130 yen of the bare-bones, zero-privacy business hotel we stayed at in Fukuoka recently, but we can say with confidence that the Nara Hotel is a lot more luxurious.
The special rate, which is part of the hotel’s Arigato Sale, also comes with a handful of other special 110-themed benefits, such as a free 110-minute late checkout extension and the option to add a breakfast buffet for just 110 yen per person if you’ve also eaten at the hotel’s dinner buffet the previous night. You also get a voucher for half off your next stay in one of the hotel’s Standard rooms.
As if the hotel itself wasn’t enough of an attraction, it’s also conveniently located, just eight minutes by shuttle bus from JR Nara Station and close to the deer-populated Nara Park and historic Kasuga Shrine, two of the city’s must-visit sightseeing destinations.
The Arigato Sale runs until February 29, and while some of the 11,000-yen rooms have already been snapped up, there are currently still several vacancies at that rate on select nights in January and February, and since this is a travel opportunity we had to wait 110 years for, it’s one you really shouldn’t let slip by.
Hotel information
Nara Hotel / 奈良ホテル
Address: Nara-ken, Nara-shi, Takabatakecho 1096
奈良県奈良市高畑町1096
Website (hotel)
Website (Arigato Sale)
Featured image: Instgram/narahotel_official
Insert image: Nara Hotel
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